Really enjoying Torchlight II

So I bought TL2 upon release, but only really just started playing it (I play games only on Linux, despite no native Linux version of TL2). Reason why is because despite having unlimited game time (I have no time commitments), I have so many games (I have over 6,000 on Linux) that I have just been busy with all my other titles. Anyway, it's fantastic so far, altho I do play a pretty heavily modded game, mainly for more end game content and better respec. It's fantastic, it really is. Just made it up to Act II. Tho I keep having to chug down health and mana pots all the time, so that's pretty much keeping my funds low. Anyway thanks very much for the game, it's really great!!

Hopefully, and I do beleieve there will be a native Linux version at some point. If not, that's ok, I'l just keep using the Windows binary, as I get much better performance on "Windows games" in Linux than in Windows, not just for Torchlight but also Skyrim, Borderlands (all three Borderlands) etc etc. Yes, that's right, I use Linux (and only Linux) for **** gaming - I buy high end gaming PC's to do just that, play games as the main task and use Linux to do it. It's a myth from 1993 that... "Linux has no games".

So just defeated Maticore and his mate not 2 minutes ago. Like all the boss fights, it took about about 50 respawns, I was barely had any gold at the start due to having to constantly buy health and mana pots all the time, and I had no pots for the fight. So I just respawn at the start of the area every time. Anyway, eventually I ran both of their health down, and now I have 3,500 gold. Problem is, i'm soooooo addicted to enchanting that I'll probably just blow it all on enchanting instead of buying more health and mana pots like I should.

Yeah, Elite dfficulty. It might not have been 50 respawns, but it was a lot. I'm playing the Embermage, and am around level 24 or so. I gotta say tho, TL1 is my favourite of the two games, and I still play it to this day. Heavily modded, of course. My TL1 games is like a party, with NPC's everywhere in town (some are ongoing quest givers, some are merchants and some are mercs to fight with me), I have loads of dungeons and other quests to do to - never ending amount of stuff to do in TL1 with my mods. I also have two enchanters in TL1, including the original which never wipes anything, but the enchant price is *significantly* more and keeps going up every time you enchant. The other enchanter does things.... diffenerently altogether, with the player able to choose very specific enchants.

I also think that TL1 is simply the better game, one of the reasons is because I think Torchlight is much better suited indoors, like the first one. The tile sets, especially the mine and the one with the water (in TL1), are incredible. Outdoor areas in TL2 just don't suit the game at all.I also miss the ability to have the fly around when you press pause. And I think the 10 limit mod max on TL2 is just very sad, and destroys the game, really. I mean, my TL1 is so heavily modded, and it's only possible because there isn't a hard "10 limit" cap on it.

Yeah I have more than 20 mods running on my TL1 meself :P It IS a great game. I just don't get to play it much anymore as whatever time I can spare for TL goes into (numerous) modding projects for TL2! Even when I play TL2, it's for testing some mod or other.

You can merge mods into one using GUTS by importing those mods. You might have to manually change some of the settings if one of the mods overwrites some of the information.

I love both games and I even now have Torchlight 1 for Xbox 360. I just need to get a Mac and Ubuntu up and running and get those versions as well.

Torchlight 1 has quite a bit of charm and that game feels alive and fresh. Torchlight 2 has more things and is much larger but it also lost a bit of the charm that the first game had. In a lot of ways Torchlight 2 is like Diablo II was to Diablo I. Both Torchlight 2 and D2 are better games but do miss out on the charm and spirit of the first game.

Yeah I have more than 20 mods running on my TL1 meself :P It IS a great game. I just don't get to play it much anymore as whatever time I can spare for TL goes into (numerous) modding projects for TL2! Even when I play TL2, it's for testing some mod or other.

Yeah, I have about 50 mods on Tl1. As for time, I'm very lucky (and greatful) that I have no time commitments, and can (and do) play games all day (and night) long. Keeps me out of my wife's hair too ;o)

I have completely lost intrest in Torchlight 2. The :Luminous Arena cused me to no longer care about the game. I wanted to play a hack n slash, not a puzzle game. It should not have been part of the main quest line, but because it was, and since I have no intrest in doing it, I can't continue, so I will no longer play. Worst bit is, I quit thiking I'll resume where I left off, but no, it insisted on forcing me to start again. It's ok tho, I have a found a new love with the trusty Diablo 2. I'm getting back into the D2 mods, specifically Zy-El and Nezeramontias (and many others). Zy-El alone has a 10,000 level cap and over 48,000 crafting recepies. There is also, Fate 4, Titan Quest, Sacred 1, Sacred 2, Torchlight 1 (heavily modded) Eschalon Book 1, 2 and 3, and the rest of my 6,000+ Linux games I have. All single player of course, like all good games, I refuse to play multiplayer. Torchlight 2 never felt right anyway, it didn't feel like a Torchlight game. The music wasn't right, the enviroments (outdoor instead of all dungeon) weren't right etc.

A bit off-topic but why do I like single player? Here:

No reliance on the Internet (especially broadband, since I may not have it when we move next as you can never tell until you're moved in)

No idiots ****, belching or spamming the mics, chat or idiots in general

No idiots trying to tell me how to play the game their way (telling me what class to play etc)

I have no time commitments or sleep pattern so I can (and do) play games at all times of the day and night. This is not possible with multiplayer, as I'd have to wait for servers to fill up / empty for a slot

I have custom bots / NPC's that rival even the best players, and my bots aren't psychic either.

No grieifing

My rules, my settings, my mods, my maps etc -- total control over the game

Can play at my own pace

No idiots trying to vote kick you for the stupidist reason

No admins abusing their power

Unlike multiplayer, single player doesn't run when I'm not playing, so I don't miss out on anything and can continue right where I left off. Also able to pause the game (I do a lot)

I never run out of things to do in single player - I have over 6,000 games (yes all on Linux, it's a myth from 1993 that Linux has no games; I'm a **** gamer who games as my main task, and only use Linux to do it) and not enough time in the day for most of them, even with unlimited game time, whereas I get bored of multiplayer very quickly because of the limitations. This also keeps my wife happy that I have so many games.

Unlike multiplayer, my single player games will never go down when the "server" finally goes offline - I still play games from 20 / 30 years ago, this is not possible with most multiplayer games as the servers don't last long. And no, getting old games to run on modern hardware isn't a problem with Linux, only Windows. I can craft any game or application to run on Linux.

Unlimited build space and space in general - I build and do what, where, when and how I want

It was a really interesting idea and slightly annoying to get through in practice, but I'd agree with Serk in that it was one of the least difficult parts of the game. The light patch part is only half of it anyway, the rest is very linear and about the farthest away from a "puzzle" as you can get. In my opinion it provides some nice contrast to an Act that is otherwise pretty dull in terms of content and aesthetic.

What I don't get is why this seems to be the point where everybody quits the game. I mean obviously it's not for everyone and whether it should have been part of the main quest is certainly up for criticism, but why the Luminous Arena in particular? You don't have to explore, you don't have to think, and if you are somehow dying repeatedly in this segment I'd like to know why. If you ask me Act 4 is where all the **** in the game is and there are plenty of places before and after Luminous Arena where you'd have a lot more trouble if building your character poorly, so that can't be it.

I find the luminous arena was one of my favorite areas to play. It can be deadly for Elite **** players due to a timing of the lights and some of the traps. But overall I just love the idea if you move out of the light you take damage. I do not consider it a puzzle area since you just follow the light. The first few times it can be tricky to get past but after that you know the tricks. Gold163 I think you nailed it why since for many Act 2 is quite boring and long. For some the Luminous Arena might have just not felt right when encountering the first time. It is one of the first areas where it can be quite difficult to avoid some of the traps and traps can be quite vicious to HC players especially playing on Elite.

Diablo II has quite a few great mods to play and Zy-El is one of my favorites. I helped beta test the last couple of versions when Kato was awake from one of his cat naps. Nez is also quite a good mod as well. So have fun.

I don't understand. Why does EVERYONE have trouble with the Luminous Arena?

Because it takes away the biggest crutch for characters who are lagging behind the difficulty curve.

Imagine that you had a metric for measuring a monster's overall "effectiveness." I.e., some kind of formula into which you tossed the figures for its damage output, and its AI, and how hard it is to kill, etc., etc., and whence you got output in the form a single number that told you how "effective" that monster is. If you were to plot a graph of monster effectiveness as the game progressed, you'd get an increasing function. Since multiple monster stats improve with level, that function is probably an upward curve.

Now imagine that you had a similar metric for player characters. Such a formula would take into consideration skills, stats, gear, player "skillz," etc. and output a single number that told you how "effective" the player character is.

Consider the relationship between these two variables. When the player character's effectiveness exceeds the monsters' difficulty curve for a given part of the game, you will have easy going. If you're really ahead of it, you'll absolutely steamroll the monsters. If you're a little ahead of it, you won't steamroll, but the outcome of the battle will never be in doubt. If you're far behind it, you' get slaughtered quickly, and either go grind levels in an easier zone or get frustrated, and give up or restart on a lower difficulty. But what if you're only a little behind the curve? Then you find ways to limp by. You gulp potions. You hit and run. You retreat to heal and regen mana. You try to draw off monsters so that you can face smaller groups at once. And so on.

A common theme that runs through many of these ways of compensating: falling back, taking advantage of space (or, more precisely, the fact that you understand and appreciate space a lot better than the AI does). Luminous Area takes that away. Characters who are ahead of the curve don't notice it, since you are able to go toe-to-toe with the monsters anyway. But characters that need to make up for being behind the curve suffer horribly if you take away their ability to take advantage of space.

We were all new at this game once. And we sucked. Everyone's first character sucked. Our unwise decisions about skills, stats, and gear, and our poor understanding of the mechanics led us to make really, really ineffective first characters. So we were behind the curve. So we had trouble with Luminous Area.

Good points. Considering my experience with TL2 and other ARPGs out there, my bets would be on the primal urge to kite the moment players sense danger, when the area is clearly designed to murder you if you try. I had, if I recall, about two or three deaths there at most on my first playthrough. And said char had 120 by the time the Netherlord went down.

Ah, well, as long as folks are getting a kick outta da game all is swell!

So, for as long as JM et al keep on coming up with innovative ways to kill the unwary, impatient and unprepared, I'll keep tossing my money Runic's way! Excepting that silly NG+ quest variant that's only good for killing HC characters, and therefore pointless. I mean, seriously, where's the fun in that sort of thing, I wonder? Could never wrap my pointed beany around either the design or rational... but that's probably just me... again, gurkas; airplanes; no parachutes; some people dig it

never let your hatred of people who would bar you from the Inviolable House of Worship lead you into the sin of aggression: but rather help one another in furthering virtue and ****-consciousness, and do not help one another in furthering evil and enmity

Speaking only for myself, a comfortable retirement is wonderful, but a comfortable retirement spent playing games would lose its appeal within about a week, if not sooner, I think.

Best advice I could offer anyone at any point in their lives: remain engaged with family (particularly your parents and your kids, if you have any) and friends and the wider community that surrounds you.

Yes, they may aggravate you frequently (and drive you to endless if not petty distraction) but when the end draws near (as it shall) you'll not regret this decision; indeed, you'll be grateful.

never let your hatred of people who would bar you from the Inviolable House of Worship lead you into the sin of aggression: but rather help one another in furthering virtue and ****-consciousness, and do not help one another in furthering evil and enmity

How nice it must be to somehow live comfortably with no commitments playing games all day. There must be some catch.

There is no catch. And I'm only 32 (happily married, 13 years this January). No kids tho, I hate kids.

Anywho, I'm crurrently playing Diablo 2 Nez mod (as we speak). I wonder, did Max (Runic CEO) and co realise when they were making D2, what a legend they were creating, even remotely realise? To this day nothing comes close of Diablo 2 / Diablo 2 with mods. Perhaps Sacred 2 but that's not in the same class as D2, it's good, just in it's own class. Anyway, It's almost ironic to think that Linux plays Diablo 2 better than moden day Windows (so I hear). I get to play it full screen, no problems alt-tabbing or anything, no issues using version 1.10, 1.09 or whatever. I hear that modern Windows (Win 7 / 8) has some issues. After all, "Linux has no games" right? Linux is "a coder's OS" right? rofl :roll:
Sure D2 may be a Windows game, but the way I have it set up, you couldn''t tell the difference. And since Windows has issues with it these days.....I hardly think it is a Windows game anymore. But honestly, the 6,000+ games I have is actually Linux native, not counting the Windows games I run on Linux (Skyrim, Borderlands, Sacred 2, Diablo 2, Tian Quest, whatever). And yes, Linux does have native Borderlands but the Windows version runs so well on Linux (better than Windows, like everything else), I just don't bother with it.

So some tips with the Nezeramontias mods for Diablo 2, NEVER do the Den Of Evil quest with any reannimate or summon skill(s) from the monster souls, as it will bug the quest and you won't be able to complete it. Put the soul in your stash (or transumute it with the soul counter) for later. Also, sell *everyhting*, no matter how little gold you get. You can buy anything you need in Nez (items to make any gear a set / unique, skill or stat points, items to create / remove sockets etc) but it will cost you. Also play with Plugy for the respec and unlmited stash. I'm a hoarder of anything that can be done offline (i don't care for online loot or multiplayer, only single player), both loot and data (I have 34.1TB of drive space). You'll *need* Plugy version 7.01b, which can still be found. Anything higher won't work. You'll also need to change two lines in the ini file to stop it from crashing.

As for Torchlight 2, I remember Max saying that... "there won't just be fields of monsters waiting for you to come by", but that's pretty much all I saw. I might get back into it at some point, but... it just doesn't have the same charm as Diablo 2 or Torchlight 1.

For Nez you do not really need the quest rewards for the Den of Evil since you will have more than enough Skill points since you can make skill books.But glad you are liking that mod. That mod is quite good. The Gauntlet is fun.

PlugY 5.06 is the best version of PlugY especially if you are playing multiplayer over lan/hamachi.

So I found a new love (still playing Diablo 2 LOD + mods tho!) - FATE 4: The Cursed King. It's fantastic! I really like the way you can tune your character, instead of the typical skill tree you have, you have other stats, such as slashing, spears skill, club skill, charm, crit chance etc etc etc. Just choose what you want! I could have a minion summoning warrior who specialises in swords, for example. But, my advice is to choose at least two wapons skills to focus on, as many (most?) enemies have resistance to one (or more!) weapon type - 50% slashing resistance etc. There are other enemy resistances too, imune to fire, ice but some are just partitally resistant to it - so maybe only 40% resistance to fire etc. So try to be a bit dynamic, don't just focus on one thing. I did (have) and it took me forever to kill a shrine. Yup, instead of just "kill this champion monster", you can actually get quests to kill a shrine, who summons waves of mobs, uses big attacks agains you etc. But there's also quests to protect shrines too, against waves of mobs etc.

Also, you can cancel a quest at any time. So if you see a quest item you want to keep or sell, just cancel the quest after retreiving it, and do what you will!